Harkness table
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The Harkness table refers to a style of teaching used most notably by American boarding schools, including Phillips Exeter Academy, Phillips Academy, and The Lawrenceville School. The name comes from the oil magnate and philanthropist Edward Harkness, who presented the schools with a monetary gift in 1930. He described its use as follows:
- What I have in mind is [a classroom] where [students] could sit around a table with a teacher who would talk with them and instruct them by a sort of tutorial or conference method, where [each student] would feel encouraged to speak up. This would be a real revolution in methods.
The gift was used by the Academy to put a Harkness table in almost every classroom. Classes are taught around the table, with class sizes of around 12 students and a single teacher in a discussion format.
Harkness learning can vary - most notably between liberal arts subjects such as English, and scientific subjects, like math. However, there are general principles and goals that go along with this method. The main goal is to encourage students to come up with ideas of their own and learn good reasoning and discussion skills. Depending on his or her style, the teacher may interact very little, interjecting only to guide the discussion.
In math classes at Phillips Exeter, there is no textbook, but only a book of problems. Students are encouraged to work on the problems, complete those they can, and then come into class and present a problem they understood to the rest of the students. Science classes are perhaps the notable exception where the teacher takes a much more active role in teaching the students from a textbook, but aside from experiments, class is still held around the Harkness table, and discussion plays a large role.
External links
- Philips Exeter Academy website on the Harkness Table (http://www.exeter.edu/pages/aca_harknesstable.html)
- The Harkness table, from an English teacher's perspective (http://www.exeter.edu/publications/exeter/fall_99/harkness1.htm)